The Roots of Evil

Winner of the February

ID: 377129   (Rated: 13+) The Stake & Garlic Vampire Contest  Write about vampires! :-) by Jenn

contest,
using the prompt: "Write a story about the evilest vampire ever."

The Roots of Evil

         The train chugged into camp, its whistle sounding a mournful summons to the waiting soldiers. In a well-practiced maneuver, the soldiers ran to unlock the side doors of the seven boxcars, filled to capacity with wailing, freezing Jews. Rolling back the doors, the men shouted commands to the white-faced, fear-stricken human cargo, urging them at gun point to exit the cars and form orderly lines.

         Snow fell in large, wet flakes, adding to the foot deep accumulation already covering the ground, and the heavy clouds hid any hint of the sun. Standing inside a warm, comfortable structure near the train tracks, Dr. Karl Unger surveyed the latest delivery of furnace fodder through a frost-patterned window. A slow, crooked smile curled Unger’s blade-thin lips as he watched a heavy-set man climb from a boxcar near the rear of the train. The man clutched wads of currency in both hands and wore a hopeful expression on his face as he approached an officer. Some of them, Unger mused, always thought they could buy freedom for themselves and their families. The scene played out as Unger knew it would. The officer motioned for the money-bearing man to take a place in one of the forming lines. The man continued forward, stumbling through the snow, obviously begging the officer to take the money. The officer’s hand went to his holster and, in a smooth motion, he drew his revolver and fired a single bullet into the man’s wrinkled forehead. The man fell sideways into the snow, his blood melting and soaking into the pristine whiteness. The currency blew from his dead hands to be scattered and crushed beneath the hobnailed boots of the soldiers, just as his very race was being scattered and destroyed by the Reich.

         Unger chuckled as he watched a woman and two small children rush from the crowd to throw themselves over the dead man’s body. The officer landed a vicious kick to the woman’s temple. She reeled backwards, dead eyes staring toward the gray sky, arms outstretched on the ground as though in the process of creating an obscene snow angel.

         One of the children, a boy, flung himself at the officer, beating the man’s chest with small, clenched fists. Two more pistol shots rang out and the boy slumped at the officer’s feet. The other child, a girl Unger saw, as she rocked on her knees and turned her dirt-caked, tear-streaked face up to meet the officer’s pistol, was quite pretty, with large, dark eyes and full lips. Unger stepped to the door, flung it open and yelled, “Hauptsturmführer! Stop! Bring the girl to me!”

         The S.S. Captain holstered his weapon, only seconds away from shooting the girl, grabbed her arm and dragged her to Unger. “You feel compassion for this one, Doctor?” the officer asked with a knowing smirk.

         ”Indeed. You have made her an orphan! I’ll look after her now,” Unger said, drawing the girl to his side, hugging her close, feeling her sob against him.

         The officer snapped his right hand up, palm out. “Heil Hitler! Enjoy your evening, Doctor.”

         Unger lackadaisically returned the Nazi salute. Der Führer, in Unger’s opinion, was a cartoonish madman, deserving of no respect. The madman had made it possible, however, for Unger to carry on some interesting medical experiments and to sate certain hungers that, under normal circumstances, would not be allowed. Evil, in all of its many forms and variations was the order of the day and Unger took full advantage of the opportunities. He tossed his twentieth cigarette of the morning into the snow, spread his slender, almost feminine hand across the distraught child’s back and ushered her into the warmth of his combination living quarters and laboratory.

         The girl complied as though in a stupor --surely suffering from shock. She smelled of dirt, sweat, and worse human fluids. “What is your name, child?” Unger asked in a soothing tone.

         The girl shivered beneath his hand. “Ru . . . Ruth. My . . . my family . . .”

         ”I’m afraid they are gone, Ruth. But I’ll take care of you. Are you hungry?”

         The girl nodded almost imperceptibly.

         ”I’ll have something prepared for you,” Unger said, kneeling in front of the girl,
unbuttoning her once fine, now ragged, coat. “But first we need to clean you up and remove the stench of the train from you.”

         Ruth stood complacently as Unger undressed her, chill bumps dotting her smooth, youthful flesh. A small moan escaped Unger’s lips as he saw the girl’s nakedness. Still a child, probably nine or ten he guessed, but tottering on the brink of adolescence, her breasts were small, hard-nippled buds. Lifting her easily, Unger carried her to his bathroom and set her down. He nodded toward the toilet and, while the child took advantage of the receptacle, Unger filled his claw-footed tub with hot water. Rolling up the sleeve of his white medical smock, he tested its warmth with his elbow. Perfect.

         He turned to find the girl standing behind him. Seemingly unashamed of her nudity, she stepped into the tub and slipped into the relaxing water until she was completely submerged. Coming back to the surface, her dark hair dripped. Unger took a large bar of soap and created lather between his hands. A washcloth would have dulled his tactile pleasure. He washed Ruth’s hair, her neck, her pale shoulders, and beyond, touching those private parts of her frail young body, pausing to enjoy every curve and crevice. Beneath his smock, his penis unfurled and became rigid with desire.

         The war had not caused Unger’s sick predilections. Pedophilia was a part of his
make-up since, as a boy of twelve, he forced a young neighborhood girl into fellating him. His first, he made the mistake of letting the crying, fearful child go once she satisfied him. An unpleasant scene unfolded when the girl’s father came banging upon the door of the Unger home later that day.

         The man wanted to kill Karl but, as Karl’s father was a man of some wealth, the girl’s father was placated with money. Karl didn’t understand the whole incident. He hadn’t harmed the girl. He only used her in a way that seemed efficient and natural. He learned from the experience, however. Never again; over the next twenty years and the two dozen or so girls he fondled, raped and sodomized, would he leave any of them alive to tell the tale. It seemed wasteful to him, as the children could have been used more than once, but there was no shortage of young, golden-haired victims, so he put such thoughts from his mind.

         One of those individuals who is born without a conscience or feelings, Unger enjoyed his medical experiments and the constant supply of children being delivered to his door by the trains. They were heading for the gas chamber anyhow, he reasoned. He felt he was providing them a measure of kindness and sexual awareness before they met their fate. He was a monster in a world of monstrous evil.

         Ruth whimpered as Unger’s hands explored her beneath the water. The shock was wearing off, and she was becoming aware of the wrongness being perpetrated upon her. “Don’t! Please, don’t do that,” she pleaded, squirming away from Unger’s
touch.

         ”Shhh. You’ll enjoy it. Just do as I say,” Unger breathed heavily, lifting Ruth
from the water and wrapping her in a thick towel. Despite her wriggling protest, and the screams no one would heed, Unger used the girl in every way his heart desired.

         Afterward, as she lay huddled, curled into a protective ball on Unger’s bed, pain throbbing through her violated body, Ruth wondered at Unger’s ferocious attack. How could a person do such things to another person? She drew herself even more tightly into a fetal knot as she heard Unger’s footsteps approach. “Here,” he said happily. “I’ve brought you baked chicken, boiled potatoes, and bread with butter.”

         Ruth shook her head. “How can you be so cruel? The things you’ve done to me! You are a monster!”

         Unger set the tray bearing the food on a table and sat next to Ruth. He stroked her still-damp hair. “A monster? No. I’ve done you no permanent harm. I am a great scientist, working for the good of mankind. Come,” he said, taking her hand in his. “Let me show you.” Cramping and raw, Ruth followed.

         The room was large and cold and smelled of feces, urine, and the sweet-sour scent of infection. Several barred cells lined two of the stone walls. Inside the cells were people. Stopping at the first cell, Unger kicked the bars. A woman slowly rose from the only furnishings in the cell, a small army cot. She hopped on one foot to stand before Unger and Ruth. Ruth recoiled as she saw that the woman’s arms were missing from the elbow, and her left leg was amputated at the knee. Unbandaged, the nubs oozed a sickly, green, viscous fluid. Looking into the woman’s face, Ruth also saw that one ear, her upper lip, and most of the woman’s nose had been sliced away. With no lip to cover them, the woman’s upper teeth were exposed in a sardonic grin.

         ”This experiment is to see how much injury a body can sustain and still live. As I continue to remove more and more of her limbs, I can learn how to better treat our soldiers wounded in battle. Her brain will be last, of course. I’ll monitor the reaction to each part I snip away,” Unger explained.

         Moving to the next cell, Ruth saw that there were two people inside. Naked, the women sat close together on the cot. Their faces mirrored unspeakable horror and pain. As they turned slightly, Ruth saw that their bodies were joined from beneath their arms to their hips. Massive incisions, held together with thick, black thread glistened shiny and red. “This is one of der Führer’s commissioned experiments on Siamese twins. I cut them apart, studying the shared organs and vascular systems, trying to determine what causes the anomaly. Then I use normal, healthy individuals to try to duplicate the same effects, as you see here. Most die in surgery. But Hitler desires research into all aspects of twins. He hopes we can produce twin births in all pregnancies, to create more men for our army.”

         Unger dropped his cigarette and ground it out with the toe of his boot. “So, you see, I am doing great works that will be applauded after the war for their medical significance.”

         ”But these are human beings. You are maiming and killing them with no thought of their pain or suffering,” Ruth sobbed.

         ”Nein! They are not human beings. They are Gypsies and Jews and other lower forms of life. They are insignificant.” Grasping Ruth’s wrist more tightly, Unger yanked her behind him as he strode from the hell of the room. “I feel the need to taste the pleasures of your body again, little one.”

         In the darkness, Unger stirred. Sleep had come to him as he held Ruth nestled comfortably against his groin. Now, however, even in his sleep, he sensed her absence and awoke. Turning, he saw two eyes in the darkened room. Glowing with a fierce, red light they moved closer to him. A small, strong hand reached out and muffled his intended cry, pinning him forcefully to the bed. He saw Ruth’s pretty face above him, outlined by a dim light from outside the window. The eyes were animal-like. The full lips that had served his needs so well were now parted, and the incisors were long and dripping saliva. He struggled frantically, but his strength paled in comparison to the girl’s.

         Ruth dug her fingernails into his cheek. Her hot breath washed over his face. She lowered her mouth to his exposed neck and sank her fangs into his jugular. Pain scorched Unger’s throat as the teeth tore ragged holes in his flesh. Sucking noises filled his terror-stricken ears. Then more pain as the girl suddenly withdrew her fangs and faced him. “Do you know of this thing I have become, Doctor? I was bitten just two days before the train came for us while picking flowers in the woods. My father knew of such creatures, and would have spent his last cent to supply me with blood, without me ever harming anyone. He told me that vampires don’t have to be evil.”

         Her hair brushed Unger’s face, creating an involuntary erection even in the face of fear. “But that is not true, is it? When faced with the cruelty and monstrous actions of people like you, evil must be weighed. Can a vampire be anything less evil? You have taught me much about pain and disregard for human life,” Ruth said, reaching beneath the blanket and curling her fingers around Unger’s hardness. With a single yank, Unger felt his penis ripped from his groin in a gout of hot blood and searing pain.

         Tossing Unger's pasty white manhood over her shoulder, Ruth studied the pain in the man's blue eyes. "I'm not the child who arrived here yesterday. The memories of the vampire who bit me . . . centuries of memories and history . . . have been passed on to me. I'm now an adult in this innocent, though harshly used body."

         The knowledge and enormous strength had washed through her as she slept. Her life as a vampire had begun even as the agony of Unger's last attack still racked her small frame. Suddenly the pain vanished, and she knew she would never feel pain at the hands of humankind again.

         “I’ve learned well,” Ruth continued. “I will be the most evil vampire ever known. I will take pleasure in ridding the world of human monsters, beginning with you, then with every soldier in this camp, and all others I can find. Your wives and children, and your children's children will die in horror, and in the most atrocious ways I can imagine.”

         Before slashing her teeth once more into the blood-bubbling holes in Unger’s neck, Ruth smiled. “You asked me before if I was hungry, Doctor. I am. Very. And you shall be my feast.”

The End